


Marching Forward

by peggy_hamilton



Series: Band Of Brothers Imagines [20]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 03:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20351554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peggy_hamilton/pseuds/peggy_hamilton
Summary: you pretended to be a man to join the war effort, and Bastogne really isnt the place to start falling for your superior officer





	Marching Forward

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on my tumblr @justthinkingofwaystoavoidbusses
> 
> original request: Your writing is amazing ! Could you write a fic that would take place during the episode “breaking point” in which Lipton and the reader get closer through the hard times they’re living? - anon

Mortars exploded all around you, you pressed yourself further down into the foxhole and prayed to god you made it through the barrage. When you had enlisted into the army you hadn’t realised what you would be getting yourself into, you had lied and pretended that you were a male. You became fast friends with the men of easy and with each passing day as you grew closer and closer you knew it would be harder and harder to reveal that you were actually a female, they would have seen it as a betrayal of trust and they no doubt would have kicked you out of the army.

That worked out all well and good until you got hit by a piece of shrapnel in Holland in your side and the truth came out. Doc was the first one to know and slowly the others found out, at first they had been angry at you (understandably so) but after a while they realised that you were just the same as you had always been. You were a toccoa man after all, well, woman, and they needed as many of them as they could get.

The higher ups never found out and the new replacements didn’t know either, so you continued on with the easy boys like nothing had ever changed. Except everything changed when you were put on the front line unexpectedly, Bastogne was like nothing else. Fresh snow fell almost every hour and the chill seemed so much worse without any proper winter clothing. But the worst thing was the German artillery that would hammer at you at any time during the day.

You had lost more friends here than everywhere else combined, this barrage you had barely made it to a foxhole. The mud outside where you had been standing blew up just seconds after you had jumped into the foxhole, you didn’t know who else was in here but you were glad that they were in here with you rather than out there.

The explosions stopped and you shifted into a more comfortable position, the man stood up and began yelling, “Stay in your foxholes! Do not get up! Stay in your foxholes!” Lipton. With Dike in command he had become your unofficial leader, mama Lip. He was the only thing keeping everyone alive, he was safety and you were glad he was who you were sharing your foxhole with.

He settled down next you after he heard the shouts of affirmative that no one was leaving their foxholes. “Are you okay?” he asked you quietly.

You nodded, “Yeah, you?”

Lipton didn’t have time to reply because the barrage started up again and the two of you pressed down into the ground, at some point you had grabbed his hand or he had grabbed yours and you were now holding onto each other tightly. As the world exploded around you you prayed that the both of you made it out of this alive.

After what seemed like forever it stopped. The forest was deathly silent then you both heard the wobbly cry for medic, “Is that Buck?” you asked with a frown.

“Stay here,” Lipton commanded, already jumping out of the foxhole.

“Like hell,” you followed after him, technically Lipton was your superior officer and you should have listened but Buck was your friend and you weren’t going to sit around in some hole in the ground.

When you got there you felt bile rise in your throat as you saw Toye and Guarnere lying on the ground, legs missing and bleeding onto the snow. The snow had turned a brilliant white red, you felt rooted to the spot and barely noticed that Roe, Malarkey and Luz had joined the scene. Luz was in a similar state of shock to you, staring unblinkingly at Toye’s stump of a leg.

Your eyes moved across the scene in front of you until you met Lipton’s eyes which seemed to pull you back to reality, “What do you need me to do?” you asked, looking for anyone to give you some direction.

Lipton had moved over to Luz who was still in a daze, you shared a worried look and you moved forward to go help someone. Toye was clearly in shock, babbling about his helmet, you spotted it a few yards away and carried it over to him, “Here ya go, buddy,” you placed it on his head.

“Y/L/N?” he asked, looking up at you.

“I’m right here,” you gave him your best reassuring smile.

“Am I gonna be okay?” he asked.

You looked over at Roe but you couldn’t read his face, “Course you are, you’re Joe Toye, you’ll pull through anything. I’m gonna go see Bill, okay?” He nodded and you quickly moved over to Guarnere to try and place a bandage on his leg, “How you holding up?”

“Peachy,” he strained. You stayed with them until they were taken off in stretchers, it shook you to see the two men who you had considered the toughest sons of bitches in the entire division lying helpless on the floor. You wondered what life would be like for them back home, if they ever made it there. No. You couldn’t think like that, you needed to stay in the moment and think for yourself.

You didn’t realise you had missed dinner until Lipton came to your shared foxhole carrying a tin of lukewarm something. “Are you okay?”

You nodded, taking a small bite of the barely edible food, “Yes, thanks for this.”

“No problem, you need to eat.”

“I mean for all of it, for taking care of all of us,” you explained.

“It’s just my job,” Lipton brushed off like he always did, it may be his job to look after the company but you knew he took it beyond that. He cared for all of you without a second thought, it was one of the qualities that drew you to him. You knew it was silly, he was married after all, but you couldn’t help it when your stomach flipped when you saw him.

The two of you sat in companionable silence, you hadn’t ever really spent that much time alone with him before the Ardennes but now you realised you enjoyed his company a lot. Too much, it would seem, when he left to go do rounds and check on the men you let out a sigh of relief. You were worried you were being too obvious regarding your feelings for him, it seemed that nothing was going your way.

When he returned he sat next to you and pulled a blanket over you, you were thankful for the extra warmth he provided even if it was minimal. The sensation of him pressed to your side sent tingles down your spine and you internally cursed for being such a girl about it all, you had drowned yourself in the atmosphere of being one of the guys that you had forgotten what if felt like to have crushes and all too tender feelings for a place like this. The two of you talked about nothing in particular to fill the time, you just liked the sound of his voice.

That night the barrage started up again and you curled up against each other for protection, halfway through the assault a man dropped in on top of you. “Muck and Penkala!” Luz yelled over the noise from the other side.

“Muck and Penkala got hit!” you barely heard and your heart dropped. They had been some of your closest friends since the beginning, amongst the first to find out about you. You tried to reason that George was mistaken and they couldn’t be dead but the hard and cold truth was he was right and they weren’t coming back. Your mind went to Malarkey, how he didn’t even know yet and how it would kill him when he found out.

You couldn’t help the screams that erupted from your throat, this was one of the worst barrages yet. The sky was alight with the fiery explosions and splinters from the trees fell down onto the floor and the three of you.

All at once it seemed to stop, you took a shuddering breath, stunned to move. A shell dropped and landed on the edge of your foxhole. Your heart got caught in your throat, all three of you staring at the small piece of metal that would surely end your life in a matter of second.

George was the first to move, he lit up two cigarettes, leaning over Lipton to hand one to you. With a shaky hand you took it and breathed in the smoke, out of the corner of your eye you noticed Lipton take Luz’ smoke. “I thought you didn’t smoke.”

“I don’t,” Lipton replied and took a drag.

George shrugged and lit up another one, all three of you had your eyes locked onto the shell. It was a dud, but it could still go off any second and none of you wanted to tempt fate.

You didn’t know how long you all sat there, long enough for your cigarette to burn the tips of your fingers. You but it out in the cold ground around you, “We’ll need to dig a new foxhole,” you broke the silence.

Lipton nodded, “Yeah,” he agreed.

Slowly you all climbed out of the foxhole giving the dud shell a wide berth, “I’ll go tell Malarkey,” Lipton told you and walked off. You wanted to go with him but you knew he needed the walk alone to sort his thoughts before he told Don, “Are you okay?” you asked George.

He nodded, a distant look in his eyes, “Yeah, no. I saw it happen, they were calling me into their foxhole.”

You sucked in a breath and squeezed his shoulder, “We’ll pull through.” You knew that it wasn’t much to help but was all you could offer.

Luz nodded, “Yeah, thanks.”

After he left you ran a hand over your face, it seemed all your friends were dropping like flies. You wondered when it would be your turn, who was going to be next? Luz? Malarkey? Lipton? You didn’t want to think about it.

You found your entrenching tool and began to dig a fresh foxhole to distract yourself. The manual work gave you some warmth and kept your mind off the reality you were living, it was tough work as the fresh snow seemed to undo any progress you made.

About an hour later Lipton found you still digging, almost done. “This out new foxhole?”

You glanced up and gave him a tight smile, “Yup.”

He hopped in next to you and began helping you dig out the last of it, it was much easier with him helping you and your nerves already felt steadier with him by your side. Together you found some broken of branches to cover your foxhole and you settled in for the night. “Do you miss home?” he asked you quietly.

“Of course,” you nodded, home seemed like a faraway day dream now. “Do you?”

“Yes.”

“Huntington, wasn’t it?” you asked and he nodded, “What do you miss the most?”

“My ma,” he shrugged, “My brother. My wife,” that cut through you hard, you knew it already but that didn’t make it any nicer to hear about. Lipton laughed emptily and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his inside pocket, “Can you believe it? A dear john letter.”

Your breath caught and your heart sank for him, “Lipton, I’m so sorry,” you began.

“It’s fine,” he cut you off, “I guess it was over before I left, I just didn’t want to believe it.”

“When did she tell you?” you asked and cursed yourself for it, he probably didn’t want to talk about it.

“A few weeks ago,” he shrugged, “I should have been expecting it. I was, but it still came as a shock I suppose.”

“No kidding,” you blew out a breath, “Well, it’s her loss, you’re a great catch.”

He smiled shyly, “You think so?”

“Course you are,” you smiled confidently, “Any girl would be lucky to snag a guy like you. You’re not too hard on the eyes either,” you nudged his shoulder good naturedly, using humour as a cover up for your actual feelings.

He laughed and nudged you back, “Thanks.”

Silence settled over you and you heard the distant sounds of a barrage further down the line, not close enough to be in any danger, “This sucks,” you kicked at the frozen dirt in front of you.

“What?”

“The cold, the food, the barrages, this whole fucking war. Who asked for it? It’s all so unnecessary,” you complained.

“I know,” Lipton agreed, “But we’ve got to keep marching forward.”

You sighed and looked over at him, “How do you always do that? These pep talks?”

He shrugged, “Talk like that doesn’t help anyone any,” you slumped at his words, you knew it wasn’t good to say it all out loud but hearing it from him hurt. “I’ve got to keep morale up as much as possible if we want to survive.”

“You’re too good for this war, Carwood,” you told him as you looked up at the sky, barely able to make out any stars through the thick fog, “Men like you shouldn’t be out here risking their lives. You should be at home, living a happy life.”

“So should you,” he looked over at you, “You shouldn’t even be here and you are. None of us should be here, but the only way to stay alive through it all is if we have each other,” he said quietly.

You nodded, he took your hand and interlaced your fingers together. He squeezed your hand tightly, “Try and get some sleep.” You shifted and lay your head on his shoulder, feeling him lay his head on top of yours. It wasn’t ideal, but falling asleep with Lipton’s hand gripping yours was the closest you had come to feeling like home in a long time.


End file.
